MUST QUILT

5% Red
by Ilene Atkins

I've had this big neon sign flashing inside my head for some time now, saying MUST QUILT. So that's what I've been doing. It does beg the question, why must I quilt?  I've always loved sewing, sewing anything, really. But why quilting, why now?

I was recently making the Dragonfly Quilt, here, and had some insight. After my presentation last week to my quilt guild, here, I heard those voices inside my head that say I'm not good enough, and Who do I think I am?  You know those voices!  But getting feedback on my quilts has been so positive.  This disconnect between the outside world and my inside world just didn't make sense to me.

5% Red, detail
by Ilene Atkins

So today I was emailing my friend about the dragonfly quilt, and I came to the realization that when I'm making my quilts, they are the visual representation of the essence of who I am. It is the deepest part of me coming out for the world to see. Any worries or troubles or discontent in my life become inconsequential.

The quilt I'm showing today is a finish from last fall, and I didn't get it photographed until recently. I think I pieced it the year before, and got it quilted in last years finishing frenzy. I've called it 5% red, since it has so little red. I think now I could have put in more red, but this is the way it turned out, so I'm leaving it at that. And I just quilted it with wavy lines. It's been added to my growing stack of finished quilts.

Linking up this time to The Needle and Thread Network, here, and Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday, here.

Dragonfly Quilt

So this is the dragonfly quilt that I finished up recently. I made it for a friend of a friend. She got it today, and she loves it.

I don't know if the shimmer shows up in the photo, but I used a shimmery sheer fabric for the dragonfly, and quilted in the veins on the wings.

The background is meant to represent water and sky, and the border represents the forest, all of which are dear to the recipient.

I quilted cattails into the background, and at the last minute, decided to quilt in a heron. Perhaps you can just see it in the lower right photo. Turned out to be a spot on idea.

Exhilarating

Yes, exhilarating, is the word I've used to describe how I felt last night. I was at my quilt guild meeting, giving a short presentation about how I quilt my quilts on my domestic machine. Wow. I had 5 of my quilts with me to talk about, and the quilty ladies just ate up every word!

I was part of this month's Members Showcase, in which 5 of our quilters each got some time to talk about our quilt journey. It was really interesting to see a body of work from each person, and hear how each one got to where they are now.

And what an honour to be invited to share at this level. The ladies were very interested to know the details of how I actually get the quilting part done on my home sewing machine. It seems to be a crazy idea to many!  And they were quite fascinated that I've tackled this part of quilting without a long arm machine.

This quilt was one of the ones I had in my showcase, and it is a freshly finished one. I worked like mad to have it ready to show!  Ok, maybe I'll add a few more quilting lines, but basically it's a finish.

These are the two colours of blocks in the quilt. In the pink blocks, I quilted a freehand loopy flower, and in the blue blocks, I quilted a bit of crosshatching, using a ruler and freemotion. In the future, I want to try a smaller crosshatch, but this was a good learning experience.

I was speaking with a couple of quilters after my presentation, and comparing my early quilting stitches to this recent quilting. I was pleased to point out the difference, and encouraged people to just jump in and start.

And just because I know you've been looking for the dragonfly quilt, I will tell you it is finished, and nearly in the hands of its recipient. All will soon be revealed. It will be worth seeing, I promise.

Linking up with Leah Day this time, here.

Quilt Photos

I spent some time this weekend setting up a place outside to hang up quilts for photographing. I've had three finishes to show for some time now, and have just now gotten it together enough to actually have photos to show. I like to get my quilt photos outside for  better lighting, but I had to contend with wind, bright sunshine and cold today anyway. It's never ideal, but it is still a set-up.  Mr. KQ was very agreeable with helping me, so that was a bonus.

Diagonal Hearts by Ilene Atkins

So I'm showing today the quilt which I think might be my best one so far, certainly it's my own favourite so far.  I just love how this one turned out. It was nearly a right-off, but I managed to save it from disaster!

I didn't really know what I was doing with tension on the backing when I did the quilt sandwich for this one. So when I laid down the diagonal quilt lines along those rows of hearts, I had a lot of puckers on the back. At the time, I didn't know how to fix it, and I became discouraged and put it away. That was about 5 years ago! I make a better quilt sandwich now, by the way!

In this year's finishing frenzy, I decided this summer to pull it out and face whatever music there was to be faced. I thought it was worth salvaging, and figured I now had enough experience to work out any kinks. I painstakingly took out a lot of that quilting, worked in all the puckers, and then finished up with what I had started. It's okay as long as you don't look too closely at the back!

Diagonal Hearts, detail by Ilene Atkins

I wrote about this quilt previously, here, and here. In case you are wondering, I needle turn appliqued two hearts on every block, then joined all the blocks together. Then I appliqued a heart on each intersection. This is one of my red and denim quilts, six I think so far.

When I first started to do my quilting, I did a lot of straight lines with my walking foot, and filled in with stippling, so that's what I continued with. I've branched out from stippling since then, so I added some free-motion hearts in the spaces between the hearts.

This quilt has been a long time from start to finish, and I'm so glad it's now on the finish list. I hope you like it, too.

Red & Denim #4

Red & Denim #4
by Ilene Atkins

Do you remember when I was working on this quilt? I wrote about it here and here.  It has been finished for a while now, but I haven't been able to get a good photo of it. Until it was hanging in our quilt guild's quilt show last weekend, that is. It really is an amazing feeling to see my quilts hanging at a show. It still blows me away. Anyway, you can finally see it in its entirety here and now.

And it was a great show. Well done as always, with great work from our members. I was working at the show for almost the whole time, speaking to other quilters, and people who had travelled to see our show. People were visiting from Pennsylvania and Scotland, and stopped in to take a look. And many people from around the area, too.

I've had another quilt sandwich made up to be quilted, but I haven't been doing much sewing lately. Various body parts have been hurting, from repetitive strain injuries.  I've been to see an osteopath, so I'm working on being on the mend. And things are a little crazy at work, and there is a lot of doom and gloom, so I'm working on focusing on the many things that make each day worthwhile. Like sunshine, funny cats, hummingbirds in the yard, very warm fall weather, beautiful fall colours. It's not hard to look around and see a lot of splendour. But I haven't had much energy to get going at my sewing machine. I can hear it calling to me this very minute!

And the great news is that my quilts drew a bit of attention at the show. Apparently people are wondering how I manage to get them quilted on my domestic machine. So I've been asked to do a presentation in January to our quilt guild about it. Isn't that amazing? A bit scary, yes, but also VERY exciting.

Linking up to TNTN, here, and Off the Wall Friday, here, and Anything Goes Monday, here.

What to Quilt Where

I've been away from quilting for a bit, being busy at work. I started a new assignment last week, and I've been too tired to sew!  Today I felt like getting back at it, so I did a bunch more quilting on this Denim with Hearts quilt. Until my helper friend showed up, that is. He came by to see what I was doing just as I was starting to take pictures, so he's in there, too.

The end is in sight for this quilt, and it just needs a few more lines to finish it up.  Interestingly enough, I was halfway across on these inside squares before I figured out how to shape the hearts nicely by freemotion. Rats. I'm not worried about it too much, though, since this is one of the "practice" quilts I had decided to work on a few months back.

I recently purchased Melody Crust's book, A Fine Line, see her link here. I really like her work.  She writes in this book about what to quilt where.  It has been very helpful for me, since this is one of my challenge areas.  One of her points is to mix straight lines with curvy lines, in contrast to the pattern of your piecing or applique, to create a nice balance.  It seems I was on the right track with this quilt, but decided to add a few more straight lines to give it a more finished look.

Linking up with The Needle and Thread Network, here,  Off the Wall Friday, here, FMQ Friday, here, and Patchwork Times, here.

Sienna Loves Her Quilt

Quilt for Sienna
65 x 76"

I finished this quilt for Sienna just in the nick of time. Her birthday is this weekend, and I stayed up late last night getting the binding and label on it. I must say I am quite pleased with the results. All those bright colours have grown on me!

Quilt for Sienna
detail

I'd also have to say that this is the best quilt, technically speaking, that I have made so far. I took a lot of time to make sure all the blocks and borders were squared up, and the pieced back is square to the front. Yes, quite pleased.

And all that worry about it not being loved? All for nothing. Sienna's mom Anna had tears in her eyes when she saw it, so I'm thinking I nailed it.

Check out all the other great quilters with these links:  Richard and Tanya's blog, here, Freshly Pieced, here, and Judy's Patchwork Times, here.

Transformation

Today was a non-sewing day for me. I have been thinking for a while now about setting my sewing machine up with a flatbed table, for years, actually, but now it has become serious for me. It's hard to believe I've been sewing for such a long time this way.

I've realized lately that if I'm to be doing my own quilting on my big quilts, I need to get this done. I don't know how I quilted anything before this. Actually I do know. I did all straight lines and no free-motion, which isn't how I want to quilt anymore. I thought I might be able to wait until the weather was nicer so I could do all the sawing outside the house, but I could not tolerate my setup a minute longer!

I was working yesterday on this red and denim quilt, doing some meandering hearts, stopped right in the middle, and went out to get supplies. I recently stumbled across Marta's blog, link here, with a really good tutorial on how to do this to an Ikea table. She has a great idea for getting the machine level with the top of the table using bolts and nuts, so I did that.

I had to make adjustments for my front loading bobbin, for the size of my base plate, and for my plug-in, but I did it pretty much the way she said. I did most of it myself, too, with only a little help from Mr. Sweet, and a lot of help from his tools which he loves getting out for any project! So I now have a flatbed, and can't wait to see what happens next on it.

Piecing vs. Free Motion Quilting

Piecing won out today, and I made another quilt top to add to my stack! I'm giving only a sneak peak at this one, that I think I'll call 5% Red. I say that, because so far, for every quilt I've made, I wish I'd done something differently. And on this one, I wish I had put in a lot  more red. With the blocks all joined together, it looks pretty pale, and more red in the mix would have given it a more striking contrast. It's together, though, so I'll chalk this up to experience and leave it at that. Since I think it will look good  quilted in circles of varying sizes, I might move it to the front of the sandwich line.

And speaking of quilting. I am realizing up until now, piecing has come naturally to me, from my previous sewing experience. The free motion quilting part is all new to me. I've had some epic failures with this, so I am hesitant to get to quilting my pieced tops. I must remind myself that I've also had some epic successes, so this is my struggle at the moment. My determination to get my quilt tops turned into finished quilts is what is keeping me going. So on that note, I started quilting one of my sandwiches this afternoon. Nothing big to show yet, just laying down some grid lines along all the block edges.

The saga continues. Having this blog medium to work this out helps tremendously, and for that I am grateful.

Finished, Finally

Today, I did the last of the free-motion quilting stitches on the Christmas quilt I've been working on. What a relief that is. There were whispers around the house that I may never finish that baby, but I am proud to say I can call it a done deal. Well, it's not quite finished, because it still needs blocking and binding, but for me that part is an easy last step. I will post a photo of the whole thing when the binding is on.

You get a sneak peek of the centre here, though, and a close up of the free motion quilting. The candy-cane medallion you see is cut from a panel, fused on and stitched around the edge with invisible zig-zag stitching, with some thread-painting added on the holly and ribbon.

I cut out a cardboard template to do the sashing strips, but much of it is just free-motion. Interestingly, I switched to a smaller needle, and this improved my tension issues tremendously. A lot of it is heavily stitched, and there is some distortion, so I will need to block it to hopefully straighten it up. In a rare instance of foresight, I prepared the binding strips, label, and hanging sleeve when I was assembling the top back in November, so it will be a quick matter to get those on.

With this Christmas quilt off my machine table, I can now move on to other projects that I had set aside. I'll post about those when they come up. And with this new enthusiasm for free motion quilting, I took a look today through my WIP box, and there are a number of completed quilt tops.  And yes, some of them have been there for a while. I am thinking I now have the confidence to get to work on them and get them converted from tops to finished quilts. Imagine that!

A whole new Foot

 My sewing machine came with a darning foot, which I was happily using for my free motion embroidery. It wasnèt quite right, however, and while I had adjusted to the way it works, I kept thinking if I had designed it, I might have made it a little differently. Just how my mind works.

So our friend was over at Christmas, who happens to me a millwright.  He knows his metals, so it occurred to me to ask him about this foot. What I wanted to know was this:  can I grind away any of the extra metal, and how much can I grind away.  I wasnèt surprised by his answer. He said to dig out the Dremel tool, and start grinding.

I could picture my dad out in the garage creating something better out of something at hand, so away I went.  I cut away the front part, and made the sides a little smaller. I just kept grinding until I had it the way I wanted it. Our friend was watching to make sure I didnèt get too carried away!  I realize newer machines are supplied with just such a foot, but my 30 year old machine was made for actual darning. Machine quilting was still in the future at that point.

Amazing.  I now have fantastic visibility for my free-motion quilting. When I tried it out, it made such a big difference in my quilting. Itès like I took a giant leap forward. I have to say I am quite please with myself.

After the Christmas Rush

I haven't posted for a while, and I know my sisters and friends are wondering . . . so here's an update! 

Like it always does, Christmas came and went very quickly. I was busy with work, family and friends, and a little bit of sewing. We love having all the lights and tree and decorations all around for those darkest days of the year. It's all so pretty and sparkle-y. A drive around the city to see the lights is a treat, too. We were even at an Orthodox Christmas party this past week. Our good friend has been very sick and in the hospital, so we've spent some time time there, too.

I have been still working on that Christmas quilt I started in November. The top went together very quickly, but after that, I got a little carried away with the quilting part of it. There is sure a lot of it. Can you see my stitches in the photo? Part of this was some practice for me, I did a lot of free-motion and thread-painting on it, and there is still a ways to go. I think to myself that I should be keeping this more simple, but it takes on a life of its own. Anyway, I like the way it's going, so I will keep plugging away at it.

I've also been working on some table runners that I started last year. On those, I did a lot of outline stitching and close stippling. This also felt like some practicing for my quilting, and I love adding these  around the house for Christmas. I was comparing the ones I'm working on this year to last year's ones, and I'm noticing a big difference in my quilting stitches. Last year, I did mostly straight lines, and a bit of stippling. I didn't know what else to do. This year, I've added to that some thread-painting, outline stitches, flowers, feathers, small bubbles, and other stitches. It may not be new to other people in the quilt world, but I am amazing myself all the time!  

A New Gadget Needs a New Quilted Cover

I got a new electronic gadget for Christmas. It's a 10.1" Samsung Galaxy Tablet, and I love it. I had been thinking about it for a while, and my sweetheart surprised me, really surprised me, with one for Christmas. It's amazing what's possible in the technology world. Anyway, I decided I needed to make a cover for it, since the neoprene ones weren't very exciting or personal for me.

I looked around the house for ideas, for fabric, for whatever I could use. There were several possibilities, but what I came across was a quilted piece I'd started some years ago, and never finished. I had extra blocks left from making a quilt, and put them together into a wall hanging. I quilted the stuffing out of it, in a contrasting colour, and didn't much like where that was going. Where it went after that was into the closet, quickly forgotten. I didn't know what else to do with it.

I was only too pleased to cut it up into something more useful. I even

managed to find the original fabric for the binding. It was easy

enough to figure out how big to cut it, and joined the edges in an envelope fashion to fit the Tablet. I added beads and yard for trim, and added Velcro for a closure.

I now have a very personal Tablet cover.

Cold November Rain

Ok, so it's not that cold for November here, it's actually fairly mild (11C), but raining all day today. Yesterday was sunny and also warm, so we put up our Christmas lights out in front of the house. I am old school in using energy hogging incandescent lights, instead of the new led ones, because I like the way they look. I put a giant string on the boulevard tree which pretty much lights up the whole street! Being the eco nut that I am, we also put everything on a timer so they go on at 7:00pm when the hydro rates drop in half. We have one of those lit up deer that I especially like.

This rain today is perfect for sewing. I've been working on some Christmas stuff, that I can't disclose for a little while. But I can say that last year I made a bunch of table runners out of Christmas fabric. I was pulling out Christmas stuff from boxes, and there they were. In my usual fashion, I only ran a few straight lines in for the quilting stitches.

I must say that being in Houston with Cindy and Leanne open my eyes about those quilting stitches. Leanne has a long arm quilting machine, so I was able to see quilting through her eyes. We all saw so clearly, that it is the image or pattern or colour on a quilt top that draws us in, and then we would all see the quilting stitching when we looked closer. We all really enjoyed looking very closely at all the different types of stitches, and all resolved to get better at that part of our quilting.

So when I saw these table runners, they looked nearly naked! And I decided to lay down some free motion quilting stitching. It came pretty easily, actually. It was good practice. Mostly, I followed the lines in the print, and added some infill around the buildings and gingerbread people. This is just the first one, I may be doing the rest as well. Maybe not this year! There are a lot of things to do, all of a sudden.